What am I going to do with all these potatoes???

We are a potato loving family, but I am now beginning to doubt whether I have enough potato recipes up my sleeve to last us out the summer!  I planted 25 earlies (Rocket variety) which are now ready to eat in 2 week staggered stages and I have also planted about 16 Pink Fur Apple salad potatoes, which will probably be ready in about 3-4 weeks.  That’s a lot of potatoes for a family of 3 and so I need to think about how I can vary how I cook them.

Food Revolution currently have a theme going on, on Twitter, which is to find a great way to cook potatoes…… to steer chip lovers away from their fat laden snack!

So excited about our new pots!

So…. I did something really fantastic yesterday which I have to share with you and it was dead easy.  Boil some water and pop in your new pots with a few cloves of garlic to parboil for about 5 mins – as you do preheat your oven to 200C. When the pots and garlic have had 5 mins, drain them, toss in oil (I use cold pressed rapeseed – high smoke point!), a little Maldon salt and ground pepper, chuck them in a pan with some rosemary over the top (pref fresh) and roast for 20 mins.  A much better alternative to chips to accompany the fantastic ribeye steaks that Jon got from our local butcher!

How’s that for fast, easy food!

Rib-eye steak, garlic roasted new potatoes and salad from the garden

Happy birthday Abbie! – Dairy-free Marshmallow cupcakes – a sugartastic, once a year treat!

She's a big 4 year old now!!

Abbie is 4 today and so, like the wonder-mother that I aspire to be (hasn’t happened yet!)…. I made cupcakes for her class – ‘Marshmallow Cupcakes’ from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Abbie sat scouring through various books and finally settled on these ones, so that is what made! One of her friends from nursery has a cow’s milk allergy and I understand that as I had a casein intolerance before I was pregnant with Abbie (pregnancy took it away weirdly, although I go back on soy whenever I have any asthmatic probs). So I made dairy free versions and tampered with the sugar content a little as I was using sweetened soy milk.

I was thinking about the sugar content of these cakes pretty much the whole time I was making them, as I was shocked that on Jamie’s Food Revolution, children in LA schools are given a carton of flavoured milk every day which contains 24g of sugar. I calculated the sugar in each cupcake and was equally horrified to find that each cupcake contained a whopping 30g of sugar!! I reconciled myself with the fact that birthdays only come around once a year….. If I hadn’t have put the frosting on the cake, the sugar content would have only been 8.5g, meaning that every child who is drinking a carton on flavoured milk is consuming the sugar equivalent of 4 un-iced cupcakes a day! Would you let your school deliver this? Looking forward to the next instalment tonight… C4 10pm!

Anyway to the recipe….

Marshmallow cupcakes – adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook Makes 24 (for a class!)

240g plain flour
200g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
90g veg/soya margarine, at room temperature
240ml sweetened soy milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

vanilla frosting (500g icing sugar beaten for 5 minutes with 160g veg/soya margarine, 50ml soya milk and a tiny splash of vanilla extract)
200g mini marshmallows
Edible glitter, to decorate
2 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) gas 3.
2.Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and margarine in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the soy milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.
3.Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining soy milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.
4.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
5.Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
The next bit is optional – I did it and at point of trying to get sticky marshmallow into a sponge, I wished I hadn’t! Put 24 big marshmallows in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth. When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with a dollop of melted marshmallow. Leave to cool.

I started putting metled marshmallow inside, but frankly it was too fiddly and sticky, so I stopped!

6.Stir the mini marshmallows into the vanilla frosting by hand until evenly dispersed.
7.Spoon the frosting on top of the cupcakes and decorate with edible glitter.

Frosting and edible glitter on!

 

This recipe should probably have a warning on for diabetics….. but I have to say they look and taste sensational. I was just so pleased that Harry could join in the fun as it is horrible when everyone else is having something and you can’t….. clearly a feeling I have built up over years of casein intolerance and dieting!!

Very sugary... but how gorgeous?!

Omelette in a bag! A new way to cook eggs for Sunday evening – inspired by Food Revolution

Saw on twitter that Food Revolution are having an omelet/omelette (depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on!) cook off so Abbie and I had to throw our hats into the ring! If you haven’t seen it yet, Jamie’s Food Revolution is must-see TV! I couldn’t believe the s**t that they were serving up in LA schools. We used to have a caterers at my school in Houston, when I worked in the US, which I thought was pretty awful (Italian/American fare) loaded with fat, but at least you saw a vegatable!! And the children could order side salads! Would you give your child a brownie for breakfast?? No choice if you live in one of LA’s school districts…… outrageous! To tune in Tues C4 10pm – I have it series linked!

Anyway to my ‘Revolution-ary Omelette’! All you need, per omelette is 2 free range large eggs, a tablespoon of grated cheese, and a tablespoon of your choice of additional ingredients – we used some lovely asparagus that we bought from Aylsham Farmer’s Market. Oh and a quart size Ziploc type bag. This is taken from a book I picked up whilst visiting the lovely Jude, in Charlotte, NC, at a wonderful restaurant called ‘The Flying Biscuit’!

We write our names on the bags as it makes it easier to sort out when they're cooked

Abbie's bag

Then comes the fun bit – crack your eggs straight into the bag and add the cheese and other ingredients. Then ‘burp’ the air out, seal it and smoosh to your heart’s delight!

Smooshing

Then pop into a pan of boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.

13 minutes - not more, not less

Take care when taking the bags out, opening and serving as they will be hot – I use tongs. The omelette will be cooked perfectly, a little soft and gooey in the middle!

Perfect!

YUM!

Have a go and let me know if you love these as much as we do!